Wheat heads for 4.5% weekly gain on US weather worries

CANBERRA: Chicago wheat futures edged higher on Friday, eking out a fifth daily increase and taking this week’s gains to around 4.5%, as concerns mounted that dry conditions in the US Plains will curb yields.

Corn futures rose slightly and soybeans were flat, with ample supply keeping a lid on prices.

July wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) were up 0.1% at $6.07 a bushel at 0419 GMT.

Kansas City July hard red winter wheat futures, which represent the crop grown in the Plains, rose 0.3% to $6.56-3/4 a bushel and were headed for a whopping 8.6% weekly gain.

Conditions in the Plains have been dry for months but drought is spreading and beginning to do real damage to the crop, said Tobin Gorey, founder of Australian consultancy Cornucopia.

“It’s losing yield,” he said. CBOT wheat remains far below its highs of 2022, when prices rocketed above $13 a bushel.

A series of strong global production years has dragged prices down.

Global wheat supply is still comfortable but lower US wheat production would draw down US inventories that have long acted as a barrier to price rises, opening the door to rallies in the future, Gorey said.

Commodity funds have been net buyers of CBOT wheat every day this week, according to traders. Funds held a small net short position in CBOT wheat on April 7, the most recent date for which official data is available.

In other crops, CBOT July corn was up 0.2% at $4.58-1/2 a bushel and 1.6% higher over the week.

The most-traded soybean contract was flat at $11.63-1/4 a bushel but was down 1.1% from last week’s close. Brazil is expected to export a record 113.6 million metric tons of soybeans in 2026, industry group Abiove said on Thursday, keeping the market well supplied.

Argentina’s 2025/26 corn harvest is forecast to reach a record 61 million tons, up from the previous estimate of 57 million, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said.